The Hastings Standard WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1904. OUR VOULUNTEERS.

Hastings Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 4151, 10 February 1904, Page 2

The Hastings Standard WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1904. OUR VOULUNTEERS.

'i iie linn looting ijpon which volunteering has been placed in Jlawke s Hay, ami the popularity of our citite,i soldiers, has been amply demonstrated by the fervent enthusiasm 'dis plased by all classes m their efforts lo relieve tire new drill hall of its ijunk-n of debt.

U was said that after the Uoer war had passed away into history the martial spirit of New Zealand would die out ; but, although popular feeling on military matters has '■ naturally fallen from the fever heat maintained during the eventful South African struggle, it has left a whole some spirit of patriotism in the country which finds vent in public displays such as that his Excellency the Governor presided at to-day. Let pessimists sneer as they; may at the military wave* that swept over the colony iu the South African crisis, we are convinced that it was during that memorable period that Young New Zealand sprang at one bound from a comparatively unknown colony into- a young and vigorous nation with a defined status, aind no uncertain voice in the councils of the Empire. Before the war Young New Zealanders took little! if any pride in their native land, and chose rather to identify themselves with the country which gave their parents birth, but a new spirit has been instilled into the rising generation of Maorilanders, who feel a thrill of laudable pride in the creeds of their countrymen in the great war. His Excellency Lord Rainfurly has always done everything in his power to forward volunteering in his country, and, in order to be- present here today, he has found it necessary to change a previously arranged programme. H's successful efforts, too, in establishing a veterans' home deserve to be remembered with lasting gratitude by the people of the colony as clearing them of a charge, which has long humiliated England, of deserting i n their declining years the men who fought and hied for her against the enemies of the flag.